Style: progressive/depressive black metal (mixed vocals)
Review by: Sam
Country: United States
Release date: 15 October, 2021
Once upon a time I was desperate to find bands like Opeth. After having my mind blown by Hands of Despair’s latest album Well of the Disquieted (PS: they have a new one coming out December 3rd!), and being a long-time fan of Disillusion, I was convinced that bands that sounded like Opeth were the truth. The beauty and the beast mixed vocal approach, generally enhanced dynamics, and the adventurous song structures made listening to those bands less like hearing a song and more like watching a movie. Simply put, it was peak music for me.
Little did I know yet however, that I was not ready for actual worship. Bands that sounded like they wanted to be Opeth, stealing riffs, acoustic chord progressions and everything. So as I reviewed clone after clone (the worst offender being Piah Mater), I got burned out on the style, and haven’t put much effort into finding anything in that mould since. Ironically, this album just stumbled upon my path, sounds like Opeth, and is NOT worship. Consider me a happy man.
The Silver is an offshoot of Crypt Sermon and Horrendous, and their music sounds like neither band, genre-wise. This is a black metal record with touches of prog metal and goth rock. There’s a lot to like here. The lead work in particular is lovely. They really pulled on my heart strings with the melodies. I also loved the goth touch on the clean vocals, making for a very emotive sound. The cleans can get a little buried among the violence, but for the most part they work. The playing in general is excellent. Nice hypnotic riffs and properly tortured-sounding DSBM-style harsh vocals provide the backbone of their sound, and they balance it with some really meaty (and very audible) basslines underneath all the chaos (which should not come as a surprise to Horrendous fans). And overall, there are a lot of amazing moments in these songs. It’s a very easy record to fall in love with. They check all the boxes I mentioned in the intro that I look for in a band like Opeth.
There is a big problem with this record however, and that lies in the songwriting, which sounds utterly chaotic in spite of its many good ideas. It often felt like they just threw things at the wall and hoped that it would stick. There’s little thought to properly developing themes and motifs to build satisfying payoffs. “Behold, Five Judges” is a very representative example of this. It starts with a tom groove, but quickly transitions into fast black metal riffs, hops onto a different riff, gets into some sort of clean vocals chorus (which is amazing by itself I must say), goes into a new riff and solos, riffs some more, and then they decide they had enough and hop into some sort of tribal groove until the song just… ends. All the individual components are interesting, but they don’t come together in any sort of meaningful way. It’s not like, say Between the Buried and Me, where the chaos feels purposeful and organized. And neither is it like Opeth, who eschew traditional structure but still manage to sound organized and have clear direction. It rather just sounds like messy songwriting. And that’s a shame because a lot of moments are incredibly compelling.
This review will be shorter than usual. I don’t have anything else to say about it. Ward of Roses is a promising, very daring debut album. Its strengths lie in its innovation and the high quality of their ideas. Its peaks are among the highest I’ve heard this year. I just wish there was more attention to proper thematic development and direction in the songwriting. Now all we’re left with is a giant stream of consciousness that is a pleasant, but ultimately hollow experience. I hope The Silver will stick together long enough for a sophomore effort (as ultimately they are a side project), because if they improve on the songwriting I will be a very happy man, and my itch for bands like Opeth will be satisfied.
Recommended tracks: Vapor, Gatekeeper, Ward of Roses
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Novembre, Shining, Ulver
You may also like: IER, Voragine of Autumn, Hands of Despair, Stone Healer
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Gilead Media – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
The Silver is:
– Nick Duchemin (harsh vocals)
– Matt Knox (guitars, clean vocals)
– Enrique Sagarnaga (bass)
– Jamie Knox (drums)
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